Sunniva I

Empress of Dawn

Sunniva I was the first Empress of Divinice to be born as a new breed of maiden, resulting from the chaotic fallout between Ylais and Kysro. She was far weaker magically than her predecessors, and her ability to claim the throne was shaky due to having been appointed by a so called 'false' empress, and due to not having Eloise V's body to perform the ritual. Her power, too, was at risk, due to the seemingly inevitable collapse of the Empire. Sunniva I would not take these facts. Within weeks of taking the throne, she granted substantial powers to the head of the military and the head of her young band of Temple Maidens, allowing them to act with greater degrees of autonomy and less oversight. In 1307, [western] sailors found the remains of Eloise V's boat, with the aid of [western] refugees living in Stolisia. With her body finally returned to Divinice, albeit in an awful state, Sunniva I could officially be declared Empress. Shortly thereafter, she performed an altered form of the ritual that granted retroactive Empress authority to Fuyuko I. She then sought proper, official negotiations with [West], which would end in 1310 with her declaring [west] as a state independent of Divinice, much to the outrage of her Divinitian citizens. Before she signed the official order, many assassination attempts were made by her own countrymen. She would, however, sign the paper with the full acknowledgement of the head of the military, who even signed it himself to add to its legitimacy, as many still doubted Sunniva I's claim.